Are American Jews White Folks? Diversity, citizenship and the traverse of ethnic identities

For a generation at least it is common to think of Jews in America as White. This positioning of Jews on one side of the race line has never been taken at face value. Mostly Jews on the left opposed it, and pundits and scholars criticized it for its implications on American Jewry. Yet, it seems that this controversy has remained confined not merely to limited quarters of American Jews (mainly the intellectuals), but also that the debate was carried out only by Jews of European descent. As of recent, a new voice emerged to contest the place of American Jewry within the American mosaic. My research is based on in-depth interviews of young American Jews (~30), most of them are descendants of Israeli immigrants who have roots in Arab and Muslim countries (known in Israel as Mizrahim, or orientals). By identifying as Mizrahi, Sephardic, or Jews of color, these young activists challenge some of the fundamentals of American Jewry, including their relation to Black America. These calls for diversity are also echoed in the 2020 Pew Survey that included questions about Mizrahi heritage and thus offered a more nuanced picture of the makeup of American Jewry. This paper follows the history of the traverse of Mizrahiyut between Israel and the U.S., asking how does this re-shape the status and activism of Jews as American citizens.